BJP president Amit Shah to sound poll bugle in Telangana

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah is all set to sound the poll bugle for the ensuing assembly elections in Telangana with a public meeting at Mahabubnagar on Saturday, a party leader said Friday. During his daylong visit, Shah would pray at the temple of Goddess Mahankali in the old city of Hyderabad in the afternoon before proceeding to Mahabubnagar, state BJP president K Laxman told reporters here Friday. After the public meeting, he would meet the party’s state office-bearers and district unit presidents at Kothur in the evening to discuss the strategy for the elections, before returning to Delhi. Laxman slammed the proposed “unholy alliances” between Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Communist Party of India (CPI) on one side and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and “communal” All India All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) on the other. The parties are trying to do “Karnataka-type politics” in Telangana, he alleged. The reported comments of AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi that his party can stake claim to chief ministership, though it may not have majority strength post-elections, similar to H D Kumaraswamy becoming the chief minister in Karnataka, should not be taken lightly, Laxman claimed. Congress, TRS, TDP and the Communists have helped AIMIM grow by joining hands with it in the past and “people need to be alert”, he said. “MIM, which is thought to be a rope, is going to be a noose,” he added. The TRS government has not celebrated ‘Telangana Liberation Day’ on September 17 (when erstwhile Nizam state merged with the Indian Union in 1948) as part of implementing AIMIM’s agenda, the BJP leader charged. BJP is the only strong alternative to these parties and Shah would make it clear, he said. BJP would contest all the 119 assembly segments in the state on its own, Laxman said. Telangana would be the gateway to the south to BJP after Karnataka and Union Ministers and other leaders would visit the state for campaigning, he said. His party would go to the people urging them to elect a BJP government as they had given opportunity to all the parties, he said. Candidates with winning chances would be identified after the announcement of poll schedule, he added.